Communications

BBVA has submitted to the Spanish National Markets and Competition authority (CNMC) a series of unprecedented measures to guarantee financial inclusion, lending to SMEs and competitiveness, especially in Catalonia and the Valencian Community, in order to facilitate a prompt authorization for the combination with Banco Sabadell. The specific commitments being presented include: BBVA will not close offices where there is no other branch nearby and will maintain the commercial terms for individuals and SMEs in those postal codes in which there are fewer than four financial institutions¹. In addition, the bank is committed to maintaining, for 18 months, the working capital lines for all SMEs², and the current total credit volume for those that work exclusively with the two banks. These commitments largely mitigate the risks identified by the CNMC, which are mostly focused on certain territories. The bank will continue to collaborate closely with the authority to finalize the commitment agreement and the authorization of the transaction as soon as possible.

¹For the purpose of competition, BBVA and Banco Sabadell are considered as a single entity.

²Except in case of financial deterioration.

From November 11 to 22, Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and host of COP29, will be in the spotlight. This Climate Summit, dubbed the "Finance COP," will focus on climate finance—specifically, how to assist developing countries in meeting their goals and protecting the global economy.

BBVA is to donate €4 million to the Spanish Red Cross to help those affected by the DANA in Spain. This donation will be aimed, initially, at covering the most immediate needs and subsequently at contributing to the recovery of the thousands of people who have been affected. This initiative is in addition to a series of emergency measures implemented by BBVA last week, including a donation campaign among customers and employees via Bizum, which has raised over €3 million to date.

After training more than 50,000 employees in data, BBVA is now busy developing a new program, this time alongside the University of Navarra and focused on the use of tools such as ChatGPT. The aim is to boost productivity by optimizing efficiency in decision-making and daily operations. The program is part of a partnership agreement to train bank employees in data science and new emerging technologies.

Financial Times and Statista have identified those paving the way for diversity in Europe in their report, ‘Europe’s Diversity Leaders 2025’. The publication ranks BBVA as one of the most diverse companies in Europe; it is the top Spanish bank on the list and 13th in the entire banking sector.

BBVA Asset Management (AM) has launched a pilot project capable of applying blockchain technology to asset management, in line with its strategy of harnessing innovation for the benefit of its clients. To succeed, it has registered a short-term fixed-income ‘tokenized’ investment fund through the regulatory sandbox of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

Garanti BBVA Kripto aims to provide the highest standards in terms of performance, security, and customer trust  for digital assets. It does so by establishing strategic partnerships with Ripple for the services provided by  its subsidiary; and with IBM for secure custody solutions for its crypto asset trading platform, which serves more than 14,000 users.

BBVA reinforces its strategy in Latin America with an ambitious expansion plan in Brazil, the largest wholesale market in the region. With a growing team and a strong focus on sustainability, the entity plans to deploy local capabilities by 2025 to serve more than 250 key companies in Brazil.

BBVA is the world’s thirteenth most advanced bank on account of its ongoing efforts to integrate data and AI technologies, according to the Evident AI Index. More precisely, the bank ranks first in Spain and fourth in Europe, where it is widely recognized as offering outstanding professional development opportunities for its AI specialists and for having defined a Group-wide strategy that permeates the upper echelons of the organization.

BBVA and the owners of El Celler de Can Roca have renewed their partnership for three more years. On the 10th anniversary of the sponsorship, they are celebrating this alliance that has emerged from their shared values, and plan to continue developing new projects.

BBVA was recognized by Global Finance as the bank with the best open banking services for companies globally. This award joins 12 other accolades that the prestigious magazine has presented to the bank this year. On a global level, the awards for the best bank for corporate clients, and the award recognizing BBVA’s AI Factory as one of the best financial innovation laboratories stand out. By country, Spain was recognized as having the best sustainable finance and is considered the most innovative bank for companies, and Peru received the award for the best bank for SMEs.

BBVA is one of the first banks in Visa's global network to use VTAP, a new Visa platform that enables financial institutions to create and manage digital tokens backed by fiat currencies such as the euro and the dollar. BBVA will use VTAP to create tokens on the public Ethereum blockchain with expected live pilots in 2025.

BBVA and leading global investment firm KKR have formed a new strategic partnership to support the decarbonization of the economy. As part of the strategic partnership, BBVA has committed $200M (€187 million¹) to KKR´s Global Climate Strategy, which invests in solutions at scale to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Both companies made the announcement during Climate Week, which is being held in New York this week.

Header photo, from left to right: Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Partner, Global Co-Head of Climate at KKR; Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability and Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) at BBVA; Regina Gil, Head of CIB USA BBVA; Charlie Gailliot, Partner, Global Co-Head of Climate at KKR; Antonio Bravo, Global Head of Sustainability & CIB Strategy and Corporate Clients Coverage at BBVA.

Next year will witness the entry into force of the European regulation on the provision of cryptoasset services, aka the MiCA Regulation, and with it a whole new generation of players is expected to break into the world of digital assets, as indeed prophesied at the 7th Blockchain Forum organized by El Confidencial. “Now more than ever, banks have an essential role to play in consolidating the cryptoasset ecosystem,” remarked Alfonso Gómez, CEO of BBVA Switzerland, who took part in the forum, where he proclaimed that BBVA was the first big bank to launch a bitcoin custody and trading service in Europe.

Before deciding to invest a portion of your savings in a company, it is crucial to find out its real value. However, knowing where to start is not easy without prior experience. To facilitate this task, here we will describe the different methods and tools financial analysts use.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila spoke in Barcelona on Tuesday, emphasizing Catalonia's strong "future appeal" and the bank's commitment to supporting its growth. He stressed the region's importance to BBVA, noting that Catalonia is the largest contributor to the bank’s business in Spain, with one in four new SME customers coming from the region. The combination with Banco Sabadell, he added, will further strengthen BBVA’s commitment to Catalonia and its SMEs: “We aim to continue growing with Catalonia and the transaction with Banco Sabadell reflects that.” On the topic of post-merger concentration in the banking sector, the BBVA Chair stated that "this transaction will not create competition issues, as it will result in a smaller institution compared to previous mergers.”

BBVA announces its participation in Project Agorá. This project, launched by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a group of leading central banks, and the Institute of International Finance (IIF), will proceed to the next phase with more than forty private sector financial firms in their exploration of how tokenization can enhance wholesale cross-border payments.

BBVA Group opened a new office in Houston with the aim of leading the financing of the energy transition in the United States. This move to support its sustainability is spurred by the BBVA´s Group´s plans for growth in the country and forms part of its Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) operations in the United States.

The bank is expanding its cryptocurrency custody and trading services to include USD Coin (USDC), a leading stablecoin whose value is pegged to the US dollar. This addition will enable BBVA’s institutional clients to speed up their trading operations by enabling them to transfer value more efficiently with blockchain and secure their stablecoins into BBVA’s vault.

The U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority has given green light to BBVA to take indirect control of TSB Bank plc, Banco Sabadell’s banking subsidiary in the United Kingdom. The authorization is one of the conditions to which the purchase offer to Banco Sabadell shareholders is subject and a necessary step to complete it, since TSB would become part of BBVA.

With the aim of facilitating access to banking services, BBVA adapted its app in Spain for children at the end of 2022, allowing them to use functions such as mobile payments, Bizum and online purchases under parental supervision. Interested parents can open an account for their children between the ages of 0 to 17 directly on the app or at a branch. Since its launch, over 250,000 minors have signed up in Spain.

The city of Barcelona is hosting the first edition of this event in Spain, which ran from August 25 to 29. Within the broad program of activities, BBVA sponsored its Finance Day, which focused on the applications of AI and machine learning within the financial industry.

The natural world possesses deep value that economic systems have been shunning for centuries. However, understanding and harnessing this natural capital is key to finding solutions to climate change. New Zealand is a prime example of how countries can integrate this concept within their business community and public institutions. In BBVA’s monographic study titled ‘Natural capital, curbing climate change’, you can learn more about the benefits and rewards of using natural capital as a means of improving social well-being.

Garanti BBVA has been honored as Türkiye’s "Best Private Bank for Sustainable Finance" at the Global Sustainable Finance Awards, organized by The Digital Banker magazine, a globally trusted news, business intelligence, research and awards body, servicing the worldwide financial services sector.

BBVA tapped the market today with a Tier 2 subordinated debt issue totaling €1 billion, maturing in 12 years and featuring a redemption option from year seven. The issue has been very well received, with demand exceeding €3 billion at times, tripling the amount ultimately allotted. The price was set at mid swap + 200 basis points, below the starting price (mid swap + 225 basis points). It is the bank’s seventh wholesale transaction this year.

Garanti BBVA continues to make life easier for its customers with Garanti BBVA Mobile: with more than 15.5 million active users, it is the most widely used private-sector banking app in Türkiye. App usage has risen fivefold over the past five years, and in the first half of 2024 topped 2.7 billion logins, making for a monthly average of 450 million visits, while completed transactions increased by 25 percent to almost 800 million.

Around 40 percent of BBVA’s business customers in Spain have upgraded to the Android PoS terminal, which offers more functionalities than a traditional device. Its operation is intuitive and resembles that of a mobile phone. The main screen displays applications for business management and a payment option. Merchants can easily process returns and view their transaction history.

Garanti BBVA won the "Best Contact Center with More than 1,000 Employees" award in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia at the Global Top Ranking Performance Awards. The accolades, organized by Contact Center World, a leading authority in the contact center industry, drew over 2,000 entries from 80 countries. This year marked the 19th edition of the event.

In the month of June, the financial institution held nearly 50 volunteer activities worldwide in which more than 6,300 bank employees participated. With these activities, BBVA is promoting support for society and the environment through volunteering.

BBVA’s AI Factory, a center dedicated to developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, expands to Mexico and Türkiye in order to create products globally and leverage knowledge across the Group. With these new centers, BBVA aims to accelerate the adoption of AI-based solutions to improve customer experience and optimize internal processes. In addition, the bank has hired 230 AI experts, doubling the headcount of these ‘factories’ to more than 400 professionals.

The ‘Sharing Knowledge’ project is a further show of BBVA’s commitment to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through this initiative, the bank supports, teaches, inspires and transforms businesses and their management team by staging talks among industry experts and discussing specific SME success stories.

Deciding on what stock to buy is far from easy. Large investors rely on advisors and experts to manage their portfolios. However, non-professional investors have to rely instead on their intuition. Aside from trends and past performance, there are various stock market metrics that allow us to analyze whether or not it’s a good time to buy a stock, based on its price.

Deep learning is a subset of IA within the broader concept of machine learning, so both concepts have a good deal in common, though also differences. Deep learning uses neural networks to draw complex conclusions in a human-like manner. Meanwhile, machine learning is able to make predictions from patterns, although it requires a higher level of human input.

BBVA channelled €26 billion in sustainable business in the second quarter of 2024, a new quarterly record for the Group. Furthermore, the total amount mobilized in the first half of 2024 reached €46 billion, 37 percent more than the same period of 2023.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly mainstreamed in society and used to make decisions that affect people´s lives in areas such as  their workplace or  the justice system. This presents the challenge of biased algorithms, which are mainly caused by biases or distortions in the training data. Proposals are already in place that caution against bias and seek to mitigate its harmful impact on society.

Opening imagen created with Midjourney (AI)

BBVA has taken a firm step toward the future by expanding its Data University program, which now features new courses on generative artificial intelligence (generative AI). As part of the agreement signed with OpenAI, the bank is calling on its employees, from data scientists to any other member of the team, to apply the latest advances in AI, machine learning and advanced analytics in developing innovative financial products. BBVA’s Data University has already impacted more than 50,000 employees in 6 years, of whom nearly 5,000 have completed specialized courses. BBVA is also looking to strengthen its educational ecosystem through partnerships with prestigious institutions such as the University of Navarra, Telefónica and Coursera.

Clean technologies, also known as 'cleantech', are technologies that contribute to sustainability and care for the environment. This includes emissions reduction, biodiversity protection and water treatment.

The Iberian Peninsula is on the cutting edge of Europe’s cleantech revolution. It is believed that the industry will create some 2.65 million new jobs and mobilize €150 billion in investment across the region by 2030. These impressive figures are revealed in a new report headed up by BBVA and Cleantech for Iberia, a coalition set up to drive the potential of Spain and Portugal as a clean energy hub in the European Union.

Online courses promoted by universities, business school training and even materials offered by technology giants are some of the ways to learn to master artificial intelligence. Beyond programming, AI professionals can receive training in other areas, such as computational linguistics and ethics. Thanks to this trend, Europe currently has over 120,000 professionals who are highly qualified to work in AI.

The British publication also recognized BBVA as the best bank in Mexico—one of the Group's main markets— the best bank in Colombia, and the best bank for corporate clients in Spain.

Six young students from Colombia and Peru, the children of vulnerable entrepreneurs served by the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, met with the Queen of Spain after winning the college scholarships granted by the foundation and BBVA in Colombia. These scholarships cover tuition and academic costs for the young students until they finish their studies. It is an opportunity for them to have a better future for themselves and their families.

BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila stated that in the fight against climate change, "Mexico is at an advantage as it is one of the countries with the most potential  in the world in wind and solar power." He also emphasized the Group's commitment to the country's energy transition.  “We must do more to support emerging markets. They have the most natural resources and are therefore a key part of the solution," he proclaimed at the opening of the 2nd BBVA Mexico Sustainability Summit held in Mexico City.

What if, instead of throwing them in the trash, we transform leftovers of meat, fish, vegetables, and many other foods into tasty bites? Croquettes, arepas, and tacu-tacu are the most well-known options, but there are other recipes that expand the flavors and textures in zero-waste cuisine.

BBVA and Malta Inc. (“Malta”), a pioneering company in electro-thermal long-duration energy storage solutions, whose corporate goals align with the advancement of decarbonization using innovative cleantech, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This agreement lays the groundwork for a strategic partnership aimed at developing innovative financial solutions to support the deployment in the Iberian Peninsula of Malta’s first-of-a-kind (FOAK) energy storage project. It´s a pioneering cleantech collaboration announced at Breakthrough Energy Summit in London

The President of the BBVA Foundation, Carlos Torres Vila, championed the power of knowledge during the ceremony for the 16th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards. Knowledge is the key to solving the problems we are experiencing as a society, at a moment when humanity is going through an unprecedented wave of disruption and faces the challenges of climate change, he said.

“BBVA is a great ally for Spanish companies as they take on their sustainable transition and international expansion,” remarked Javier Rodríguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability and CIB at BBVA. His presentation was part of the 41st Seminar organized by Spanish financial press association APIE and titled ‘The role of businesses in the new economy’, being held in Santander. “At BBVA, we support and accompany our clients, and not only multinational firms, but also those companies that need more specific advice to help them continue to grow,” he said.

The EIB Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund) has invested €377 million in the ¨BBVA Consumer 2024-1¨ securitisation fund. This investment will enable BBVA to channel nearly €800 million into the real economy to finance energy efficiency projects and new mortgages for highly energy-efficient homes. The operation also includes financing for projects to boost the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-caps in Spain.

BBVA has completed the sale of a portfolio of unsecured non-performing loans valued at approximately €270 million. This transaction is expected to positively impact the bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in Spain, which was 4.11 percent at the close of the first quarter of 2024.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez; the President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; and Carlos Torres Vila, Chair of BBVA and Co-Chairman of the Spanish-Turkish Business Council, opened the Spain -Türkiye Business Meeting, which was held on Thursday at Ciudad BBVA in Madrid.

The BBVA CEO indicated this Wednesday that creating value is the bank’s main priority and guides the way in which BBVA manages its business. At an investors conference organized by Goldman Sachs in Madrid, Onur Genç said that BBVA’s commitment to optimal capital allocation is what distinguishes the bank from its peers in the markets where it operates.

BBVA tapped the market today with a euro-denominated contingent convertible (known as a CoCo or AT1) bond, attracting demand of €3.5 billion. The issue price was set at 6.875 percent, well below the 7.375 percent starting price.

The emergence of tools like ChatGPT has transformed conversational interactions between humans and machines. Generative AI's ability to provide accurate and contextually relevant responses makes it particularly valuable for automated customer service environments, such as chatbots and virtual avatars.

BBVA has received the 'Alcance 3.0' award for the 'Best Comprehensive Scope 3 Emissions Reduction Strategy'. This award, presented by the CPOnet Group, recognizes the efforts of organizations that help reduce emissions in their value chain: suppliers, customers, employees, partners, shareholders and society.

BBVA is expanding its intermediate emission reduction targets for 2030 to two new sectors: the real estate sector in Spain and the global aluminum industry. They join the list of targets for eight emission-intensive sectors previously set by the bank (oil & gas; power generation; automobile; steel; cement; coal; aviation and shipping).

BBVA's decarbonization targets: What do they mean and what is their scope?

BBVA tapped the market this Wednesday with a €1.75 billion senior preferred debt issue, structured in two tranches. Demand was double the final placement, with orders reaching €3.5 billion. The first tranche, with a three-year maturity (June 2027), closed at a rate of three-month Euribor +45 basis points (versus an initial price of three-month Euribor +70 to 75 basis points). The second tranche, with a six-year maturity (June 2030), closed at the mid-swap rate + 75 basis points, versus an initial price of mid-swap + 100 basis points.

Social media is shaping the financial behaviors of what is known as Generation Z, those born between the mid-1990s and the 2010s. New trends are becoming popular to the rhythm of TikTok. The latest philosophy adapts to the current financial uncertainty, and brings new terms we need to learn to know what young people are talking about when they talk about money.

After years at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI)-based research and projects, BBVA has taken another big step forward in the use of generative AI in its main markets. Not only has it prioritized around 100 projects to be developed with various tools that employ this new technology, it has also signed a strategic agreement with OpenAI —the creator of ChatGPT— to start deploying this cutting-edge tool among its employees. The aim is to explore, in a safe and responsible way, how generative AI can expedite processes, improve productivity and foster innovation thanks to its abilities to create text and images and process information, among other features.